Shooting Great Looking Video Made Easy

You’ve been trying to get good video footage, but it seldom looks as good as other peoples and it’s beginning to frustrate you, well don’t worry it’s a common problem. The good news for you is that getting some cinematic drone video footage it’s easier than you think. If you follow the steps in this guide you’ll be getting great material in no time.

Weather can make or break a video

The weather and time of day are very important when it comes to getting good shots. Ideally, the weather should be clear, but a bit cloudy is ok too. You won’t want to be trying to do this on a very windy day as strong gusts of wind can destabilise your shot. So don’t fly your Mavic in winds stronger than 24mph, Spark 18mph and Phantom 4 Pro 22mph. As always the best time to get footage is during the golden hour either at dusk or dawn to give your video warm colours.

Slow and steady wins the race

Going slow, this can’t be emphasised enough! Your goal is to get great looking smooth video, so take it slow when you fly your drone, speed is rarely an asset when getting a good shot. A key part of going slow is first scoping out the area you want to film and then planning what kind of shot can best capture the area. Buying extra batteries can make this a much easier task and knowing you’ve got a longer flight time can take the pressure off and let you explore your creative options.

Of course in a few situations slow and steady simply won’t do, this is when you need to flick your drone into Sports mode to capture fast moving objects in exciting high paced shots.

Manoeuvrability is your friend.

Obviously, the huge advantage of a drone is that it can move unimpeded through the air. You can use this to your advantage in several ways.

Firstly, make use of both axes of movement, don’t just take shots with flat movements. Fly your drone in your chosen direction and make it go up or down depending on the shot you want to get. This a simple technique but it can make your shots look much more cinematic.

Secondly, you can fly your drone in a circle around your focus to get footage. This is particularly easy if you use DJI’s Point of Interests mode, just select your point of interest and then set the radius, altitude and speed of the orbit then tap apply.

Finally, you can do a “Reveal Shot” to create a sense of suspense. All you need to do is position your drone facing the view you wish reveal then fly towards it with your camera facing down until you slowly begin tilting the camera up to reveal the big picture.

Lights, Camera, Action

Unsurprisingly the camera’s settings also pay a large role in getting great footage, but again it’s nothing too complicated. Firstly, you’re going to want to set the shutter speed to be twice the frame rate this helps you to get smooth footage. It is worth noting though that if you are taking some close ground shots then a lower shutter speed is better to reduce strobing. Also if you want better control over your post processing then you’ll want to use D-LOG mode. As it can provide a higher dynamic range and more details in shadow areas, which offers more colour editing freedom. If you don’t plan on doing any post processing then it’s best to keep it set to auto.

There you have it, some easy steps to improving your video footage. So give it a go and share your creations with us at DJI Support or Skypixel.